SB 11.19.7 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

त्वय्युद्धवाश्रयति यस्‍त्रिविधो विकारो मायान्तरापतति नाद्यपवर्गयोर्यत् । जन्मादयोऽस्य यदमी तव तस्य किं स्यु- राद्यन्तयोर्यदसतोऽस्ति तदेव मध्ये ॥ ७ ॥

Verse text

tvayy uddhavāśrayati yas tri-vidho vikāro māyāntarāpatati nādy-apavargayor yat janmādayo ’sya yad amī tava tasya kiṁ syur ādy-antayor yad asato ’sti tad eva madhye

Synonyms

tvayi — in you ; uddhava — O Uddhava ; āśrayati — enters and remains ; yaḥ — which ; tri — vidhaḥ — in three divisions, according to the modes of nature ; vikāraḥ — (the material body and mind, which are subject to) constant transformation ; māyā — illusion ; antarā — during the present ; āpatati — suddenly appears ; na — not ; ādi — in the beginning ; apavargayoḥ — nor at the end ; yat — since ; janma — birth ; ādayaḥ — and so on (growth, procreation, maintenance, dwindling and death) ; asya — of the body ; yat — when ; amī — these ; tava — in relation to you ; tasya — in relation to your spiritual nature ; kim — what relationship ; syuḥ — could they have ; ādi — in the beginning ; antayoḥ — and in the end ; yat — since ; asataḥ — of that which does not exist ; asti — exists ; tat — that ; eva — indeed ; madhye — only in the middle, at present .

Translation

My dear Uddhava, the material body and mind, composed of the three modes of material nature, attach themselves to you, but they are actually illusion, since they appear only at the present, having no original or ultimate existence. How is it possible, therefore, that the various stages of the body, namely birth, growth, reproduction, maintenance, dwindling and death, can have any relation to your eternal self? These phases relate only to the material body, which previously did not exist and ultimately will not exist. The body exists merely at the present moment.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O Uddhava! The body, a transformation of the guṇas, the produce of avidyā, takes shelter of your ātmā and remains in your present condition. It is not your natural state because you are without birth and death. How can birth and death of the body belong to the ātmā? Even while perceiving illusions with a beginning and end, you actually remain separate. The jṣānī endowed with knowledge and realization then worships me as the highest goal. But that is a very distant goal. First, you should rise above ignorance, knowing you are tvam, ātmā. Taking Uddhava as his subject, he addresses people in general in this verse. O Uddhava! The transformations of the three guṇas, the imposition of the body, take shelter of you, the jīva. This imposition (adhyāsa) of the body, taking shelter of the ātmā, is the effect of avidyā (māyā). This is a state of attainment in the interim period (antarā). This means it is not your natural state, since the jīva has no beginning and end. You are spiritual and the body is material. The birth and death of the body does not belong to you, who are spiritual. How can you think that the ātmā is born, dies, or is happy or sad? “When I did not have a relationship with the body, and when the body is destroyed by jṣāna, then I can remain separate from the body. But for now, I am the body.” One continues existing as ātmā even when one erroneously perceives false objects with beginning and end, just as a person who thinks of a tiger continuously remains a person even while being conscious of a tiger. He does not become a tiger. It is also well known that the relationship of the jīva with avidyā is without beginning, through the power of māyā. One could argue that if the ignorance was without beginning it would mean this ignorant condition would be the svarūpa of the jīva, which could therefore not be removed even by jṣāna. The jīva’s svarūpa would have to be destroyed to destroy avidyā. But the idea that liberation means destruction of the jīva’s svarūpa is not accepted by the authorities.

Purport

The example is given that a man walking in the forest may see a rope but consider it to be a snake. Such perception is māyā, or illusion, although the rope actually exists and a snake also exists in another place. Illusion thus refers to the false identification of one object with another. The material body exists briefly and then disappears. In the past the body did not exist, and in the future it will not exist; it enjoys a flickering, momentary existence in so-called present time. If we falsely identify ourselves as the material body or mind, we are creating an illusion. One who identifies himself as American, Russian, Chinese, Mexican, black or white, man or woman, communist or capitalist, and so on, accepting such designations as his permanent identity, is certainly in deep illusion. He can be compared to a sleeping man who sees himself acting in a different body while dreaming. In the previous verse Lord Kṛṣṇa told Uddhava that spiritual knowledge is the means of achieving the highest perfection, and now the Lord is explicitly describing such knowledge.